mysterv

I consider 11.22.63 to be Stephen King's last great novel. It is long so it takes a commitment to start reading it (or listening to the audio), BUT it is King at his best with combining history and characters. The amount of detail about the events leading up to and afterwards are fascinating. King and his assistants clearly did a lot of research of that era. The movie was OK but does not compare to the source. It would be asking a lot to expect a movie or mini-series to capture that novel. As an aside there are a few movies/series that have done justice to their source. "The Book Thief" is one example of a successful adaptation if you want to check that one out.

This series took the original premise of an alien invasion and then morphed it into a poor man/woman version of The Walking Dead. It had several different groups of people with their own storylines who were loosely connected by a shared family member (husband, sister, etc). Rather than zombies it had **** creatures attacking humans. At first it held some interest but after too many episodes that slowly leaked out hints about the aliens it felt bloated. I am not sure I would watch a second season to find out the intent of the invasion...which is hinted at already. Some re-imagination of shows, such as Battlestar Galactica, succeed. I recommend watching a show like that instead of this War of the Worlds series.

Big fan of the book series and wanted to see the film after the initial crowds died down. Well, I went with some of my family last night to see the film... at the only theater still showing it. Aside from us there was one, yes one, person in the theater watching the movie. The Dark Tower film had almost nothing to do with the books. It had the main character names and a dark tower. Little else resembled the books but I guess an 1:30 long movie won't capture much of a major book series, especially books the size of King type books. The actors were fine, especially the boy actor playing Jake. But the film did not work as an action film or as any other type of genre. Some action but too many check the watch moments. Some character building, but who cared. Some CGI but boring. The best part of the movie was the loading of bullets into the gun... kinda sad. I suggest saving your money... although you probably won't find this film at the theater much longer... and catch it for free later. Even then it might not be worth the time spent.